Mitigation and control of shoreline or beach erosion has presented challenging problems to many seaside communities. Waves driven by seasonal storms if unabated can readily consume valuable and irreplaceable shoreside property. A common solution to date has consisted primarily of erecting bulkheads or barriers on the susceptible beach area to intercept and disperse incoming waves. Various materials have been used as building blocks to construct these bulkheads or barriers. One approach has been to construct the bulkhead of very heavy materials, such as large boulders or various large concrete shapes that resist dislodgement by the waves due to their weight. Due to consideration for aesthetics, and a desire not to permanently introduce additional materials which may be foreign to the natural environment, some seaside municipalities have adopted a policy of allowing bulkheads or barriers to be installed on a seasonal basis only for temporary use during peak storm season from spring to fall.
The foregoing approaches, however, have not been suitable for such temporary applications and have many drawbacks. The boulders and concrete shapes are extremely heavy and may be difficult to rig for lifting and placement by heavy machinery such as cranes or front-end loaders. Their size and weight also makes these bulkhead materials not readily portable, and expensive to transport to the installation site. Accordingly, the foregoing materials are ill-suited for shoreline protection applications where temporary placement, ease of removal, portability, and costs are a concern.
Accordingly, there is a need for an economical shoreline erosion protection and flood control system which can be readily installed at the beginning of the season and removed at the end. There is further a need for a shoreline erosion protection system that provides improved portability, ease of handling and transportation, cost-savings over conventional bulkhead materials, and preferably is environmentally benign. There is a further need for such a system which can also be used in flood control applications.